China's adorable pandas waddle back from near extinction

Sunday

May 4, 2014 at 3:39 PMMay 16, 2014 at 7:35 AM

By Chris BergeronDaily News staff

BOSTON - Even more than Yao Ming and General Gao’s chicken, adorable furry pandas are probably China’s most popular export to the U.S.A new IMAX movie at the Museum of Science reminds viewers shy, bamboo-munching wild pandas with their distinctive black eye patches have been waddling on the brink of extinction for decades.Solitary and elusive, an estimated 1,600 pandas live in the wilds of southwest China. Another 240 live in Chinese zoos and 30 others have been loaned as goodwill ambassadors around the world.Produced by National Geographic Entertainment, "Pandas: The Journey Home’’ documents China’s extensive efforts to preserve this vulnerable species while providing spectacular views of its dwindling habitat in the hills and bamboo forests of Sichuan province.Known in Chinese as Da Xiong Mao, or Giant Bear Cats, pandas are fun to look at but really don't have the complex personalities or dramatic stories of other endangered species like Bengal tigers, mountain gorillas or blue whales.Directed by Nicolas Brown, the 40-minute film, which opened this weekend in the museum’s Mugar Omni Theater, offers behind-the-scenes looks into the work of scientists and staff at Woloong National Nature Reserve near Chengdu, the second largest city in Sichuan province in southwest China.We meet Liu Jun, a dedicated young staffer called "Mary,’’ and her boss known affectionately as "Poppa Panda,’’ who both seem genuinely devoted to the pandas they care for, but we’d like to know more about them.Narrator Joely Richardson informs viewers Chinese scientists have a two-fold plan to increase the panda population in captivity but, more importantly, to return pandas to their natural habitats which have been shrinking due to human encroachment and overdevelopment.Resembling giant stuffed animals, pandas are veritable eating machines, devouring about 40 pounds of bamboo shoots daily, a low-nutrition diet that probably accounts for their reclusive personality and sedentary lifestyle.A reality show about pandas’ bumbling sex lives could barely compete with "Keeping Up with the Kardashians.’’Viewers learn pandas in captivity are only capable of reproducing two days a year, though they’re more fertile in the wild.So when a young female appears ready to rut, the staff arranges a rather public get-together with a fumbling young male who can’t get the job done.Finally a mature panda is brought in and, after minimal foreplay, conceives twins in record time. Hooray for old guys.Just to be sure, staff artificially inseminate mom with something that looks like a turkey baster.When the tiny 3-ounce cubs are born blind, resembling whiskery lab rats, staffers applaud and share high fives.Since the mother favors the stronger of the two, Mary takes the weaker one aside to feed but periodically switches her with her hardier twin so she gets mom’s nutritional milk.Since "Pandas’’ was made with cooperation from Chinese authorities, not surprisingly it does not address the government’s role in land grabs, overdevelopment and the extensive pollution of soil and water that continue to impact humans and animals.After the Woloong Reserve reaches its goal of breeding 300 pandas in captivity, the film reaches its visual and dramatic climax when a male named Tao Tao is released into the remote Li Tzu Ping reserve that resembles an enchanted forest where it’s hoped he’ll find a mate and start a new bloodline that might keep this little group going.But since Tao Tao was raised in captivity, staff must teach him basic survival skills like finding food and water, avoiding predators and finding a mate.Despite the title, pandas aren’t home yet.Chris Bergeron is a Daily News staff writer. Contact him at cbergeron@wickedlocal.com or 508-626-4448. Follow us on Twitter @WickedLocalArts and on Facebook.